Decision Economics. Designs, Models, and Techniques for Boundedly Rational Decisions (Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing)

This book draws inspiration from Herbert A. Simon’s interdisciplinary legacy, focusing particularly on designs, models, and techniques for boundedly rational decisions involving several fields of study and expertise. The recognition of relevant decision‐making takes place in a range of critical subject areas and research fields, including economics, finance, information systems, small and international business management, operations, and production. As such decision‐making issues are of fundamental importance in all branches of economics and are addressed using various methodological approaches.

 The special session on Decision Economics (DECON) is a scientific forum held annually to share ideas, projects, research results, models, and experiences associated with the complexity of behavioural decision processes and socio‐economic phenomena. In 2018, DECON was held at Campus Tecnológico de la Fábrica de Armas, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain, as part of the 15th International Conference on Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence.

 The study of decision‐making has become the focus of intense theoretical and applied research efforts, forming a bridge between theory and practice as well as science and business organizations based on insightful cutting‐edge experimental, behavioural, and computational approaches on the one hand, and celebrating the value of science as well as the close relationship between economics and complexity on the other.

 In this respect, the international scientific community acknowledges Herbert A. Simon’s research to understand the processes involved in economic decision‐making and their implications for the advancement of economic professions. Within the field of decision‐making, Simon has become a mainstay of bounded rationality and satisficing. His rejection of the standard (unrealistic) decision‐making models adopted by neoclassical economists has inspired social scientists around the globe to develop research programmes aimed at studying decision‐making empirically, experimentally, and computationally. The main achievements relate to decision‐making for individuals, firms, markets, governments, institutions, and, last but not least, science and research. This book of selected papers tackles the issues that Simon broached in a professional career spanning more than sixty years. This book is dedicated to Herb.